dtc95
Sydney, Australia
This review may contain spoilers
I had really high expectations due to the hype and the cast. I actually quite liked the first two episodes and the romance between Sae Ro Yi and Soo-ah as students and also really liked the MC's father. The series had a really promising start and did live up to my expectations for a while.
Really like Kwon Na-ra (I find her super beautiful as opposed to the other girl) and I rooted for Soo-ah although her joining Jangga and helping the old man was a huge turn off and frustrating to watch even after her intentions were revealed (to betray them and help Ro Yi).
The other girl was refreshing at first. She had very serious flaws yet likable in her own ways such as being "badass", smart and capable. She soon turned into an obsessive girl who clinged to the MC too much. I liked the crew as well.
The acting, especially the villains' in the first half of the series (old man and f***boy son) really made me hate them and I was curious to see the old man's past and thoughts. The cast's acting was good all the way through but was eventually ruined by the forced romance and shitty overall plot. The life lessons the series tried to convey at first didn't really work out due to the messy plot and ruined characters. "Stay true to yourself", "live with your head high", "power", "logic and schemes vs people and feelings". All empty words in the end.
The series was bearable until maybe episode 10 and had somewhat of a plot going. With lots of typical "drama" and twists, cliches, etc.. However, the old man was not that great of a villain anymore and eventually got cancer (lolz?) The nice, innocent but spineless younger brother got negative "development" and lost himself. He became the same as the father he hated. Older son went to jail and got out...
By episode 14, after the 4 year time skip the Ro Yi suddenly falls in love with the manager girl and changed ( staying true to his way of living and not changing no matter what was his whole character and motive). Soo-ah, despite her flaws and stupidity, was still a better pick IMO as from the start they both liked each other and she was always there for him (even working for Jangga was to help him - stupid writing, i know). She was always the second lead female but was winning for 13-14 episodes until the other girl just won (horrible writing).
Crazy older brother got out of jail and kidnapped Yi-seo and the younger brother. At the end of episode 14 or 15 MC kneeled before the old man just to save his "romance" that came out of nowhere. His character was far gone. All that vengeance, hatred and negativity was useless and meaningless in the end as he kneeled before the character that ruined his life and caused him pain for 15 years, to save his new found "love".
I haven't seen the last episode yet, but I have no expectations left. All the characters are ruined, everything is shitty at this point and the forced couple will form in a cliche way somehow. In the end, among the many horrible things, the plot, the characters' backwards development and the disastrous romance stood out as the worst things about this drama.
UPDATE: finished the last episode and everything wrapped up the way I expected it to after seeing the first 15 eps.
Things settled down and it was a "happy" ending but the previous issues were obviously still there. Soo-ah and Geun-soo didn't get the development and closure they needed.
The scene with the old man at the end was not satisfying at all and just really sickening. The old man was a wicked devil, sure. However, the MC just pulled a "I'm a business man" move and acts tough and cool after the old guy kneels and cries. From the start, this series was always full of toxicity: violence, power abuse, early death of the father, etc...
However, there was no real positive message in the story in the end. They won the war and MC got his revenge and became rich, but that's all. It's just like nothing happened at all and all the drama was just there for the sake of it. A very, very shallow approach to appeal to the bitterness and hatred in audiences.
I usually don't write drama reviews but hopefully this will be helpful to some people. In the end, if you want a drama that makes you feel good watching, AVOID this so that you don't end up wasting a weekend and also feel miserable because of how unhealthy the story and the characters became. This is a very naively idealistic story that tried very hard to be inspiring but failed miserably.
Really like Kwon Na-ra (I find her super beautiful as opposed to the other girl) and I rooted for Soo-ah although her joining Jangga and helping the old man was a huge turn off and frustrating to watch even after her intentions were revealed (to betray them and help Ro Yi).
The other girl was refreshing at first. She had very serious flaws yet likable in her own ways such as being "badass", smart and capable. She soon turned into an obsessive girl who clinged to the MC too much. I liked the crew as well.
The acting, especially the villains' in the first half of the series (old man and f***boy son) really made me hate them and I was curious to see the old man's past and thoughts. The cast's acting was good all the way through but was eventually ruined by the forced romance and shitty overall plot. The life lessons the series tried to convey at first didn't really work out due to the messy plot and ruined characters. "Stay true to yourself", "live with your head high", "power", "logic and schemes vs people and feelings". All empty words in the end.
The series was bearable until maybe episode 10 and had somewhat of a plot going. With lots of typical "drama" and twists, cliches, etc.. However, the old man was not that great of a villain anymore and eventually got cancer (lolz?) The nice, innocent but spineless younger brother got negative "development" and lost himself. He became the same as the father he hated. Older son went to jail and got out...
By episode 14, after the 4 year time skip the Ro Yi suddenly falls in love with the manager girl and changed ( staying true to his way of living and not changing no matter what was his whole character and motive). Soo-ah, despite her flaws and stupidity, was still a better pick IMO as from the start they both liked each other and she was always there for him (even working for Jangga was to help him - stupid writing, i know). She was always the second lead female but was winning for 13-14 episodes until the other girl just won (horrible writing).
Crazy older brother got out of jail and kidnapped Yi-seo and the younger brother. At the end of episode 14 or 15 MC kneeled before the old man just to save his "romance" that came out of nowhere. His character was far gone. All that vengeance, hatred and negativity was useless and meaningless in the end as he kneeled before the character that ruined his life and caused him pain for 15 years, to save his new found "love".
I haven't seen the last episode yet, but I have no expectations left. All the characters are ruined, everything is shitty at this point and the forced couple will form in a cliche way somehow. In the end, among the many horrible things, the plot, the characters' backwards development and the disastrous romance stood out as the worst things about this drama.
UPDATE: finished the last episode and everything wrapped up the way I expected it to after seeing the first 15 eps.
Things settled down and it was a "happy" ending but the previous issues were obviously still there. Soo-ah and Geun-soo didn't get the development and closure they needed.
The scene with the old man at the end was not satisfying at all and just really sickening. The old man was a wicked devil, sure. However, the MC just pulled a "I'm a business man" move and acts tough and cool after the old guy kneels and cries. From the start, this series was always full of toxicity: violence, power abuse, early death of the father, etc...
However, there was no real positive message in the story in the end. They won the war and MC got his revenge and became rich, but that's all. It's just like nothing happened at all and all the drama was just there for the sake of it. A very, very shallow approach to appeal to the bitterness and hatred in audiences.
I usually don't write drama reviews but hopefully this will be helpful to some people. In the end, if you want a drama that makes you feel good watching, AVOID this so that you don't end up wasting a weekend and also feel miserable because of how unhealthy the story and the characters became. This is a very naively idealistic story that tried very hard to be inspiring but failed miserably.
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